PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
Queer Students in STEM: The Voices of Amber, Charles, Jenny and Juan
Page: 1615
This report provides a rich narrative documenting the experiences of four queer students in STEM, which showcase both the challenges and power of being queer in STEM. Students viewed the nature of STEM through a paradoxical lens of a discipline that is objective and thus neutral to issues of identity, yet hostile and exclusionary to non-normative identities in STEM spaces. In response, queer students in undergraduate math courses described the difficulties in navigating the amount of personal information they reveal about themselves or be faced with the psychological burden or cognitive stress derived from presenting in non-normative ways.